Pirate theme deck - critique and suggest

I'm not the artist, I'm the poor lady who actually knows a bit about tarot. I've made two suggestions to the artist - I've suggested a book on Tarot to them and pointed out good information here, and I suggested that they research famous pirates, for the court cards and possibly some major arcana. At the moment, they are just working on majors.

My ideas:
The Fool - someone about to accidentally walk off the gang plank EDIT: New idea, someone walking off a pier, not a gang plank.
The Magician - EDIT: the ship's doctor, perhaps?
The High Priestess
Empress - change to a female captain? Perhaps Elizabeth I, as the person who commmissioned so many privateers? EDIT: Reading over the typical meaning, this may be something that will be changed totally, to a ship builder instead to represent that birth of ideas and things, rather than go with the first thing I would associate with Empress.
Emperor - definitely change to a pirate king
Hierophant - an interesting card, since while I'm not sure with Pirates, I know that the British Navy of the same period (roughly) didn't care for having priests on their ships, so that could possibly completely change the meaning of this card
Lovers - must research any famous pirate couples EDIT: Rackham and Bonney was suggested
Chariot - Thirteen's page for this card actually uses a boat type metaphor, which makes it a no-brainer to adapt.
Strength - difficult to think of powerful animals associated with pirates other than sea monsters. Perhaps a woman restraining a ferocious pirate with just a touch, or maybe really make it something involving sea monsters.
Hermit - a pirate who seems alone in a shack on an empty island... is he there by choice or exile?
Wheel - perhaps something with a ship's wheel EDIT: The Trade Winds, great idea!
Justice - a dangerous card for a pirate, to be sure. Perhaps just a piratey update of the standard images, for this one
Hanged Man - perhaps a pirate stripped and hung upside down from the yard arm, but not yet executed.
Death - whatever else, this will have to include the Jolly Roger (EDIT - or another pirate flag), but perhaps we should shake the standard imagery up a bit by showing a scene underwater, maybe a broken bit of mast with the flag under the sea, with seaweed and fish carefully selected
Temperence - moderation is not something pirates know a lot about. Maybe instead of water or liquid, we should see gold being evenly divided? If we must keep the water metaphor, maybe pirates stuck in a rowboat dividing the water that is left.
Devil - EDIT: Suggestion of Blackbeard with his beard burning. Possible.
Tower - instead of a tower, perhaps the crowsnest and mast could be used EDIT: Love the specific suggestion of the crowsnest right after or right before being hit with a cannonball.
the Star - must really think on what would bring a pirate hope and represent possibilities. EDIT: Not a bad idea to have a ship steering by the stars.
Moon - a ship sneaks quietly up on another in the moonlight
Sun - Pirates celebrating on a ship full of plunder (under the sun, of course)
Judgement - a difficult card. A pirate haunted by the ghosts of those he has slain?
The world - a ship on the ocean with no horizon in sight? Not sure about that at all.


Thank you in advance!

I would make the Empress Grace O'Malley she and Elizabeth I had some interesting encounters.

Here are some links about her if youre interested

http://www.rencentral.com/oct_nov_vol1/graceomalley.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_O'Malley

http://www.irishclans.com/articles/famirish/omalleyg.html

A good idea - it partly depends on whether she's going to eventually make a full deck, or just the majors. If she makes a full deck, I think we'll need to keep back Grace for a Queen card, just because there are so few female pirates! I was happy to see on this site that there were at least four famous ones, though. Obviously, my research isn't done yet, that's certain.

That, would be AWESOME!! While historical pirates are good, since there are so few females, it might not hurt to "invent" a few for the deck's sake. But I, for one, would be interested in the pirateness. My roommate and I plan to fly the Jolly Roger outside our house and therefore lower the property values in our neighborhood.

And, for the kicker...

This deck, if it happens (crosses fingers) will be printed on wood with a laser, and then probably some additional things done to it - not sure if it would be "inked" to make the lines darker, or a little bit of color added. The bad part of that, of course, is that it would be more expensive than most decks.

roc said:

My roommate and I plan to fly the Jolly Roger outside our house and therefore lower the property values in our neighborhood.

Click to expand...

ROFLMBO

I snorted when I read this, and spit my water out too.

OMG! I have wanted one of these FOREVER!

It's been on my backburner list for something I wanted to create in the near future...but at the rate I'm going...probably not happening for a while....

I love everything you have so far...very nice free associations!

(I am actually hoping to make a swashbucklers deck for the RPG 7th Sea...a game that uses tarot as a significant game mechanic! Sigh. Someday...)

In the meantime...I am very anxious to see the progress of this one!
It's gonna be great!

I really really NEED a pirate themed Tarot!!!!!

~Chronata...Offshore Pirate Queen

oh yes...so excited about it...i forgot to post some ideas for ya!

Lovers...the most ill-fated yet passionate pirate couple...ya can't beat Calico Jack Rackham, and Anne Bonny...fighting side by side. Said to have been the first honeymooners in Key West!

Strength...maybe consider the mermaid...and all the legends associate with sirens?

Death...there are some wonderful historic pirate flags besides the standard jolly Roger...some featuring sketetons (like Bartholemew Roberts, or Edward Low...)
there's also symbols of hourglasses, hearts, devils, and spears and swords on many flags. Though I do like the underwater...Davey Jones locker idea!

Devil...without a doubt...Good ol' Edward Teach...Blackbeard... is a good candidate for this one. he used to set his beard on fire to scare his victims!

Star...well...navigating was done by the stars...
and steering a boat through a storm, with the star as the lighthouse beacon is an interesting hopefull sign as well..


I actually had some sketches done once...but they disappeared...which is probably a good thing. I like your ideas better anyhow....

If you have any questions about piratey babble or lore...or any of the history let me know! I have been doing historical reenactment pirate stuff for about 15 years now!

So no suits, hmm? Too bad, Dubloons would fit right in, and cutlasses, and...well ok.

I'd like to actually see the trade winds as the Wheel, they're cyclical and always changing/flowing. A ships wheel seems to not fit as much other than it's round and a wheel.

Lovers--since it's also about partnership, too bad a captain & his first mate would seem to lean too much towards assumed 'gay' in people's minds. Maybe the pirate/parrot thing? A peg boy is definately out.

I remember reading about at least two lady pirates that made it into history, I think they were British.

The Magician and Hierophant, both hard cards. Maybe the cook for the Magician? They did double duty as fighters and deck hands along with the cooking.

The Tower, I think having a cannonball just shattering the crows nest with the lookout up there in it, as it's poised to fall, that would make a good one. If a ship looses it's main mast, it's lost most of it's sail power. Those were very hard to replace too.

I LOVE this idea! And great timing too - I just watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" last night (I'm still hearing the tune in my head) so I'm really in the mood for a pirate theme deck!

I really like your ideas on the cards, Femalegamer! Even though I don't know anything historically about pirates, so I don't think I can be of much help there...

I especially like the idea of a sunken ship with the Jolly Roger for Death, and the mast and crowsnest for the Tower - especially with HudsonGray's idea of a canonball shattering it. I also agree with HudsonGray on the Wheel... maybe a compass card would be fitting? And like Chronata said, something about navigation for the Star. And maybe something with a mermaid for the High Priestess? Not sure about that one...